We haven’t heard much in terms of Transformers 3 since Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen hit theaters to a tidal wave of mass disappointment from fans. The third flick in the franchise has been in the news here and there, but with director Michael Bay looking to do something else and lots of drama reported between he and star Megan Fox, it sounded like it would be a long time before we saw it…if ever.
Apparently this is not the case at all. Bay has written a new post on his official blog, and he not only shares three big new names that have joined the cast, but when pre-production will get underway, where the movie will be filming, and even a new Autobot that we’ll see. The interesting trio that have joined the cast are Burn After Reading co-stars John Malkovich and Frances McDormand, and they’re joined by Ken Jeong.
Malkovich is of course known for many different roles in many different genres from Con Air to Rounders to Shadow of the Vampire and Beowulf. McDormand is best known for her Oscar-winning performance in the Coen Brothers’ Fargo, as well as her turn as the over-protective mother in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous. Jeong, on the other hand, hasn’t been around for all that long, but he has been making a big splash as a character actor in popular comedies. He’s probably best known from playing Mr. Chow in The Hangover, but has also appeared in Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, Role Models, and The Good: Live Hard, Sell Hard.
After sharing these interesting new castings, Bay announced that pre-shoots would actually be starting in just a month, which seems kind of out of nowhere. He also shared that one of the new Autobots would be a Ferrari 458 Italia, which you can see in the image above, in case you were wondering why our Transformers 3 post had a random image of a Ferrari on it.
Here’s the full announcement from Michael Bay:
Hey, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. Just been a little busy.
Transformers 3 has been going very well. We are going to shoot in LA, Chicago, Washington DC, Florida, Texas, Africa, Moscow, and China. On the talent front, we just locked in Frances McDormand and John Malkovich. Both amazing actors I’ve always wanted to work with. We also just got Ken Jeong, he is the super funny actor stuck in the trunk from “Hangover” and the Doctor from “Knocked Up.”
We start shooting pre-shoots in about one month.
I also was at a Ferrari charity event this week raising money for a hospital being built by Ferrari in Haiti. I announced that night the newest Autobot to join Transformers: the Ferrari 458 Italia.
I also want to thank everyone on this site that donated to the Make -A-Wish charity. We raised $20,000 which I will personally be matching. This is a great charity where they make wishes come true for kids who are very ill. We have had many Kids from Make-A-Wish visit us on our Transformers sets and this time we will be posting video of their visits on Transformers 3.
Michael Bay
Bay has said that though Paramount set a 2011 release date for Transformers 3, that it would probably be July 4, 2012, which makes a lot more sense. Don’t be shocked if this date does change once or twice along the way.
[Source: via MTV]
